Alabama Men’s Tennis Opens ITA Kickoff Weekend, Faces No. 11 Kentucky Saturday

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. –– The Alabama men's tennis team (2-1) opens play at the ITA Kickoff Weekend Saturday, Jan. 29, facing the No. 11 Kentucky Wildcats (4-0) in the opening round of the tournament at Mississippi State's Rula Tennis Pavilion in Starkville, Miss. The winner of the head-to-head battle will face the winner between No. 21 Mississippi State (2-0) and Arkansas (5-0) on Sunday at 1 p.m. CT, while the regional consolation match will be played at 10 a.m. CT.

How to Follow

A link to live scoring and video will be available at RollTide.com. Updates will be provided on the team's Twitter account, @AlabamaMTN.

Format

Saturday, 10 a.m. CT - Alabama vs. No. 11 Kentucky
Sunday, 10 a.m. CT – Regional consolation match
Sunday, 1 p.m. CT – Regional championship match

ITA Kickoff Weekend

Alabama enters as the three seed at the Starkville, Miss., site and will compete against top-seeded and host school Mississippi State, second-seeded Kentucky and fourth-seeded Arkansas
The contest will serve as the qualifier for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships as 60 schools compete at 15 host sites
The winner of the regional site will earn a spot at the 47^th annual ITA Division I National Men's Team Indoor Championships in Seattle, Wash., Feb. 18-21

The Crimson Tide

Alabama is 2-1 heading into the weekend after sweeping its season opening double header against Mercer and Samford, before falling in a non-conference match against No. 18 Ole Miss
The Tide defeated the Bears 6-1, before fighting to take a 5-2 win over Bulldogs
In the team's non-conference match against the Rebels, Alabama won the doubles point as No. 83 singles player Filip Planinsek defeated No. 44 Flinn Reynolds in three sets, a feat that earned him SEC Freshman of the Week honors, while Enzo Aguiard defeated John Hallquist Lithen in three-set win

A Look at the Region

UA will face two Southeastern Conference opponents over the weekend, as Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky and Mississippi State make up the four-team regional
Kentucky is on a 4-0 streak to open its season as the Wildcats enter the weekend ranked No. 11 in the country
The Wildcats have five players ranked in the latest singles rankings in fourth-ranked Gabriel Diallo and 45^th-ranked Francois Musitelli, 89^th-ranked JJ Mercer, 90^th-ranked Joshua Lapadat and 122^nd-ranked Yasha Zemel, while the pair of Lapadat and Mercer rank 34^th in the doubles play
Host Mississippi State enters the weekend ranked 21^st nationally with 22^nd-ranked singles player Florian Broska pacing the team
Arkansas' Aleksa Bucan ranks 25^th as Alexandra Reco ranks 102^nd in singles. Andrien Burdet and Melvin Manuel are ranked No. 36 in doubles play.

Get all the latest information on the team by following AlabamaMTN on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. General athletic news can also be found at UA_Athletics on Twitter and Instagram and Alabama Athletics on Facebook.

– UA –